


Quaint Little Categories

by Poetry



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Backstory: Jack Harkness, Community: lgbtfest, Don't Have to Know Canon, Genderqueer, Other, Pre-Canon, Queer Themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-15
Updated: 2010-01-15
Packaged: 2017-10-06 07:23:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/51140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poetry/pseuds/Poetry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for a leftover prompt from <a href="http://community.livejournal.com/lgbtfest/profile"><img/></a><a href="http://community.livejournal.com/lgbtfest/"></a><b>lgbtfest</b>: "Torchwood, Jack and any character, In the 51st century, gender identity is a bit fuzzier then it was three thousand years earlier."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Quaint Little Categories

At age fourteen, Kel has discovered a fine line.

Kel and Gray go down to the beach early in the morning. They build a sand castle with towers, windows, and a moat. Kel tears some fabric off her brother's shirt for a flag to decorate the tallest tower; Gray flings sand in her face in retaliation, and in that moment, she's a girl.

Then they run into the water as the tide starts to come in. A wave topples Gray off his feet. Kel decides to teach him how to bodysurf, and when he starts demonstrating how to paddle into the oncoming waves, he's a boy.

After school, one of Kel's classmates leads him into the woods and presses him up against a tree. She slips a knee in between his and leaves a trail of kisses along his collarbone. He arches his neck in surrender, and as he moans her name, he knows he's a boy.

One cool evening, Kel and her neighbor go for a walk along the sand dunes. The twin moons of Boeshane rise over the ocean, and they stop to watch, hands entwined. The neighbor reaches up to caress her face; the knowledge dawns that she's a girl.

Both of them are beautiful. Kel can't decide.

Kel peers into the mirror. She purses her lips, tilts her head forward, lowers her eyelids a little. She looks in the mirror and sees a girl.

But then he tucks his bangs behind his ears, juts out his chin, and squares his shoulders, and looking back at him in the glass is a boy.

Both are beautiful. Kel can't decide.

**Author's Note:**

> Check out the remix of this drabble, [By Any Other Name (The Arbitrary Labels Remix)](http://remixthedrabble.livejournal.com/165437.html).


End file.
